How could you possibly say no to a guy who rhymes \u201cJohn Lee Hooker\u201d with \u201cold meat cooker\u201d? These and other existential questions await the listener to John Hiatt\u2019s 22nd studio album Terms Of My Surrender<\/i>.<\/p>\n
A songwriter\u2019s songwriter whose warehouse full of gems has been raided by many a canny cover artist, the prolific Hiatt is still the best interpreter of his own work. Yes, the voice is gravelly and worn, but he writes to its crags and gullies and delivers his tunes into the world with complete conviction. Ever the chameleon, Hiatt\u2019s music is Americana in the sense that he embraces many different genres of American music, including folk, blues, country and rock, on this particular outing mostly inhabiting an acoustic blues groove.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a dusty, homey sound that provides the sonic backdrop for a set of songs that ranks highly even among Hiatt\u2019s remarkable oeuvre. Opener \u201cLong Time Comin\u2019\u201d is a restless, gorgeous elegy for a life lived on the road, with a quiet start full of tension that\u2019s eventually broken by big drums and guitar. \u201cNobody Knew His Name\u201d is a stunning, novelistic masterpiece of a story-song about a nameless, emotionally shattered veteran trying to build a new life as a civilian, only to find himself \u201cCryin\u2019 by the side of the tracks.\u201d And the back-porch stomper \u201cBaby\u2019s Gonna Kick\u201d is indeed a kick and a half, as lovable rogue John confesses his sins while expressing his certainty that \u201cMy baby\u2019s gonna kick me out some day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The memorable lines come fast and furious from Hiatt\u2019s ever-voluble lips. For example: \u201cThey say God is the devil until you look him in the eye\u201d (the straight country-blues \u201cFace Of God\u201d); \u201cYou\u2019ve got me talkin\u2019 that baby talk\u201d (\u201cMarlene,\u201d a lilting love song with an indefinable island flavor to the melody); and \u201cThere ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 I love good for me but you\u201d (\u201cNothin\u2019 I Love\u201d). On the rascally title track, Hiatt confesses he\u2019s \u201cScared I\u2019ll get what I deserve \/ Or maybe scared I won\u2019t\u201d before deploying a playful falsetto as he prepares to throw in the towel: \u201cI love you too much baby \/ Go on and have your way with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hiatt is above all an honest confessor of his own shortcomings, spending a lot of time on this particular album begging for his woman either to come back, or not to leave, or not to kick him out. He knows he\u2019s trouble, but he just can\u2019t help himself, and at the end of a day, he\u2019s just the sort of rumpled romantic to declare \u201cMy love is here to stay\u201d and plead \u201cI wish you\u2019d come back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hiatt, sticking to his acoustic this time around, is well-supported throughout by his terrific band: Kenneth Blevins (drums), Nathan Gehri (bass) and Doug Lancio (guitar), who also produces. The mostly spare sound is filled out at times with help from Brandon Young (background vocals) and Jon Coleman (keyboards).<\/p>\n
The old manual typewriter featured on the back of the album packaging illustrates Hiatt\u2019s ethos perfectly. As a songwriter, Hiatt never overreaches; he keeps it simple and direct, yet every line feels lovingly hand-crafted. His songs are poetic but never fussy, and spiced with a prickly, incisive wit. Terms Of My Surrender<\/i> is Hiatt at his best: a witty rogue, a hard-luck poet, a road-weary sage of the art of the song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":32085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5850],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-43831","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-john-hiatt","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43831"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43831"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}